Poison Pen

Chapter 19: Pureblood Versus Muggleborn

Harry walked into the library to finish his Charms essay. What he saw made him stop and stare. Hermione Granger was almost buried under a table piled high with books, parchments and pamphlets. Harry was accustomed to seeing her surrounded by books, but to this extent was highly unusual. He knew however, a Hermione on a mission was a scary thing and so he approached warily. Two questions remained, what crusade was she pursuing this time, and how long had she been here?

"Hermione? Hermione?" Harry whispered, looking around for the formidable Madam Pince.

"Huh? What?" Hermione blinked up at him, as she put down her quill. "Oh, Harry."

"Well! For someone who has been harassing me for weeks about being her friend, you seem annoyed to see me," Harry said, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He sat in a chair beside her, carefully avoiding the pile of books in front of him.

"Oh Harry, it isn't that," Hermione said with a sigh. She looked around then whispered. "I'm trying to prove that Oliver Twist is wrong about career choices in the Wizarding World. I mean, Professor McGonagall said I could be anything I wanted, including the future Minister of Magic."

"And now?" Harry asked.

Hermione looked like she was ready to burst into tears. "Twist was right! In the history of the ministry, no muggleborn has ever risen to the position of Minister. In fact, only one half blood ever did and that's because he was born to an ancient and noble pureblood house himself, and had the full backing of that house. Why Harry? Why did Professor McGonagall lie to me?"

"Have you asked her?"

Hermione sighed, rubbed her eyes and shook her head. "I've been afraid to."

"Are you a Gryffindor or not, Hermione?" Harry challenged her. "There's nothing wrong with asking questions, it's not illegal."

It had come as quite a blow to Harry too, when the Unspeakables had answered his questions about careers in the Wizarding World. According to them, about the only way a muggleborn could get anywhere was to marry into a well to do pureblood family, like his mother had.

And according to the goblins, the Potter men had been a law unto themselves. They'd had the political clout and wealth to do whatever they wanted. Unfortunately, now that Harry was the last of his line and still underage with almost no training in the political arena, the Potter clout was fading away. The goblins blamed Dumbledore more than anyone for that.

Harry was pretty sure the old meddler had his own reasons for leaving him so woefully ignorant of his heritage, but he couldn't figure out what they were. The goblins and Lord Peter mentioned something about a prophecy which was being very closely watched, not only by the Unspeakables, but by Dumbledore as well. If Harry wanted to view that prophecy, it would have to wait until the Christmas hols when he was away from Hogwarts and Dumbledore's control.

"I'm sorry, Hermione," Harry said, bringing his thoughts back to the present.

"What for? It isn't your fault," Hermione sniffed, rubbing her eyes. "I'm going to owl my parents with these statistics, they'll probably pull me from Hogwarts. And furthermore, I'm going to advise every other muggleborn in this school to do the same!"

~~

The Heads of the Job Placement, Career Management and Ministry Panel were having their own meeting after Fudge threw down the ultimatum.

"How many muggleborns owled you for information?" asked the Head of Job Placement.

"About 378 adults and 38 minors including a very irate muggleborn by the name of Hermione Granger."